


What They Don't Say

by paperviolins



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: ALMOST Character Death, Angst, Bones is a Great Doctor, Bones is a good Dad, Childbirth, Fluff, Kidnapping, M/M, Mpreg, POV Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Questionable Biology, Sort Of, graphic birth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-02 03:12:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16778452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperviolins/pseuds/paperviolins
Summary: What started out as a simple mission to retrieve the captain for ransom went terribly wrong. Leonard finds Jim in a bad state but not for the expected reasons.





	1. Chapter 1

The situation, to say the least, was absolute chaos. What had started as a ransom and rescue mission quickly devolved into an all out fire fight. Honestly, Leonard thought to himself as a shot from one of the enemy’s weapons hit the pillar he was hiding behind, causing him to flinch, they should have expected this. After all, their previous interaction, all those months ago, with these people had been equally hostile.

Leonard huffed in frustration and tightened his grip on his phaser, set to stun, unlike everyone else on the rescue team. Even given the severity of the situation, Leonard couldn’t bring himself to do any harm. He took that vow he made in med school _very_ seriously.

The doctor wondered when the hell this would stop and when the would finally find Jim. That was the purpose of this mission after all, to rescue their idiot of a captain, and of course, it had not gone smoothly. When had anything in relation to James T. Kirk _ever_ gone smoothly?

Leonard heard his communicator chirp angrily, he grabbed it and flipped it open.

“McCoy here,” he said into it, shouting over the din of the battle around him.

“Doctor, this is Spock,” Leonard heard and sighed, of course it was Spock.

“Commander Scott has informed me that what he can pick up of the captain’s vitals are deteriorating.”

“Damn it,” Leonard cursed quietly to himself, his heart beating a little bit faster at the thought of Jim in danger.

“I’m behind a pile of rubble ahead of you and to the right, can you see me?” Spock asked.

Leonard silently cursed the hobgoblin as he quickly peeked around his pillar. He barely avoided a shot to the face from the enemy, but he did see Spock.

“Yeah, I see you,” he responded, slightly angry, into the communicator.

“There is a passageway to you left that leads deeper into the complex, do you see it?” Spock responded, seeming to not note Leonard’s anger.

Leonard looked to his left and, after a bit, saw the opening of the passageway.

“I see it,” he said, flinching as another shot his his pillar.

“I will provide cover for you. Go find Jim.” Spock said.

Leonard would normally have argued, but he knew the situation with Jim had to be bad, so he swallowed past the lump that had formed in his throat and spoke once more into his communicator, “Rodger that, Spock.”

“Good luck, Doctor,” Leonard heard Spock say has he closed the communicator.

“Good luck my ass, you crazy son of a bitch,” Leonard muttered angrily to himself, staring at the entryway.

He took a deep breath and then started his mad dash for the passageway. On the way, a shot grazed his leg, nearly causing Leonard to loose his footing. He pressed on, soon reaching the passageway, but he didn’t stop running until he was a ways down it.

Then he stopped and turned to look down the corridor behind him. The passageway was slightly twisted so McCoy couldn’t see the opening. He waited a moment, phaser clutched tightly in his hands, to see if he was being followed. Once satisfied he wasn’t, the old country doctor turned and, quickly and quietly, made his way down the dimly lit corridor.

The passage twisted and turned with the occasional hall branching off to the side. Leonard didn’t turn down any of these, instead he listened to his gut instinct which told him to keep going.

Soon, all sound of the fighting had vanished. In fact, the whole complex seemed eerily quiet. That alone kept Leonard on edge. He carefully looked around each corner for the enemy, but they were never present.

Shortly, Leonard came to an intersection of four passageways. After performing his check for danger, Leonard stood still, biting his lip, trying to figure out which way to go. It seemed his gut instinct had abandoned him.

Then he heard a scream. The scream of a man in intense pain emanating from the corridor to his right.

Leonard turned that way and ran.


	2. Chapter 2

Leonard ran full tilt no longer caring if he ran into any foes. He had to get to Jim and fast. Deep in his bones, Leonard knew those agonized screams he was intermittently hearing were Jim’s. He knew he was getting closer as the screams were getting louder.

The corridor twisted and turned and Leonard nearly slipped and fell on his ass. Eventually, he skidded to a stop out side of a wooden door. He knew this was the right place as he could hear muffled sobbing coming from the other side of the door.

First he tried the door nob which was locked. Of course it was locked, why wouldn’t it be. Leonard was about to use his phaser and blast the door open when Jim screamed again. All logic went to the wind, and Leonard just kicked down the door.

Jim’s scream was cut off, presumably by shock, and he stared blearily at Bones. Leonard was frozen in place for a moment, the less logical side of his mind struggling with what he was seeing. Jim was in an other wise empty room, on his hands and knees, clutching at his distended stomach with one hand.

Quickly, Bones switched over into doctor mode, he couldn’t be distracted right now. Dr. McCoy stepped toward his patient.

Jim, honest to god, whimpered in fear and tried to move away as Leonard approached.

“Hey, Jim, it’s ok,” Leonard said softly, stopping and putting his hands up, he had already holstered his phaser, “It’s me, Bones.”

Jim’s brow furrowed in confusion and Leonard could see tension leave his body, some was from fear and some Jim’s condition.

“B-bones?” Jim croaked out in a harsh whisper.

His voice was shot from screaming, and Leonard didn’t blame him. Jim was definitely in a rough state.

Leonard approached Jim as if he was a scared animal. Jim didn’t try to run away this time, but he did start crying again. Leonard knelt by the labouring man.

Yes, Leonard thought, labouring. Jim was in labour.

Dr. McCoy took out his medical tricorder to check Jim. Scotty had been right, Jim’s vitals were absolute shit. He was malnourished, dehydrated, his heart rate was going a million miles an hour, not to mention a myriad of other things wrong with him at the moment. He was also fully dilated. Leonard cared more about that fact at the moment.

Leonard watched Jim’s vitals as another contraction hit him. His heart rate some how got faster and Leonard could tell Jim was pushing. Len sighed and put the tricorder down and rubbed Jim’s lower back.

Jim wasn’t screaming this time, he was just making a sort of pained groan. He had his head pressed against his forearm, which was on the ground. Leonard quietly noted the rags that Jim was wearing as clothing: a horribly thin and baggie shirt and tattered pants that were probably soaked with amniotic fluid.

Leonard continued to rub Jim's back through his contraction. Under normal circumstances, Leonard would have been trying to get Jim to stop pushing, but the current situation called for haste. For Jim's sake, the faster this child was out of him, the better.

The contraction passed and Jim relaxed some, letting out a pitiful sob. Leonard rubbed his back for a moment longer.

"Jim, I hate to do this, but I need you to roll over onto your back. Can you do that for me, Darlin'?" Leonard asked softly.

Jim whimpered but nodded. Slowly, he started to roll over onto his side. Leonard helped, making sure Jim didn't hurt himself. By the time the two of them managed to get Jim on his back, another contraction had gripped him in its throws. Jim flailed a hand out.

Leonard took Jim's hand and held it between his. Jim squeezed Leonard's hand in a death grip. It was very obvious he was pushing now.

"That's it Jim, just do what you need to," Leonard said, "I'm here now, everything's gonna be fine. I've got you."

The contraction passed and Jim relaxed with a sob.

Leonard let go of Jim's hand. Jim immediately reached for him.

"Bones," he croaked.

"Shh," Leonard said, "I'm not leavin'."

Leonard moved by Jim's legs.

"Jim, I'm going to take your pants off, ok?"

Jim nodded and moved his legs to accommodate Leonard. Leonard carefully took Jim's pants off, and, sure enough, they were soaked. Despite their soaked state, Leonard tucked the pants under Jim's butt so he wasn't bare assed on the cold ground. Leonard then bent Jim's legs into a bent position.

The next contraction took Jim and he pushed. Leonard placed a comforting hand on Jim's knee and watched. He watched as Jim's opening stretched, and a peek of dark hair emerged. Jim cried out as it did so.

Leonard kept himself focused on getting Jim through this. He had to push thoughts of them being discovered by the enemy and the, almost disturbingly, small size of Jim's stomach, given his condition.

The contraction passed and Jim relaxed with a whimper.

"Hurts," he said in a strained sort of way.

"I know sweetheart, I know. You are doing great though. This'll all be over soon." Leonard said, trying to comfort Jim.

Jim whimpered again but said no more.

On the next contraction, Jim seemed to push harder than before. He screamed bloody murder as his body stretched around the baby.

“Good, Jim, that’s it,” Leonard encouraged.

Jim stopped pushing when the contraction ended. For how hard he had seemed to push, Jim didn’t make much progress the baby’s head only emerging about halfway. Jim squirmed and breathed shallowly in pain. That set off alarm bells in Leonard’s head.

“Jim, listen to me,” he said seriously, “I know you aren’t having a contraction right now, but I need you to push as hard as you can right now. The head is almost out.”

Jim whined but did as he was told, tucking his chin into his chest and pushing.

“There you go,” Leonard said, gently cupping the child’s head as it emerged.

Suddenly, the head popped free and Jim gasped in surprise. He relaxed, panting. Leonard quickly made sure the umbilical cord wasn’t around the child’s neck.

“Good job Jim! The head is out. Now, I need you to not push on this next contraction, ok?” Leonard said.

He saw Jim cringe but nod.

Leonard saw Jim tense with the next contraction, but he didn’t push. Leonard watched as the baby turned. Jim whined and made quiet noises of pain.  
Soon the contraction passed

“Alright, when you are ready, Jim, I need you to push as hard as you can.”

Jim shook his head.

“Can’t,” he said weakly.

“Like hell you can’t,” Leonard said seriously, “One more push and this’ll be over. You gotta do it Jim.”

Jim whimpered again, but he did as told, pushing on the next contraction.

One shoulder and then the other popped free. Leonard then took a better grasp on the baby and gently pulled it free of Jim’s body. It slipped out with a gush of fluids.

Jim gasped and fell back.

“Great job! It’s a boy, Jim,” Leonard said, glancing up to see Jim smile softly.

The baby didn’t cry or move.

“Damn it,” Leonard cursed quietly, starting to panic.

He swiped his little finger through the tiny baby’s mouth, which didn’t illicit a reaction. He then flicked the bottom of his foot. That did the trick; the baby flinched and started crying.

Leonard let out a laugh of relief. He looked up at Jim and his smile vanished.

Jim was bleeding quite bad and was unconscious.

“Jim?” Leonard said loudly.

When there was no response, Leonard cursed and quickly dug through his med pack for the emergency blanket he carried in there. He wrapped up the still crying baby, to keep him warm, and set him on the ground. Then Leonard moved to Jim’s side.

“Damn it. Jim!” Leonard shouted, shaking the man.

Jim didn’t respond. Leonard checked for Jim’s pulse and found a very weak one. He then checked to see if Jim was breathing; he wasn’t.

“Damn it, don’t do this to me,” Leonard said, immediately starting CPR.

After a set of chest compressions and breaths, Leonard checked for breathing again; still, nothing.

“Damn it, Jim!” Leonard cursed, “Don’t you dare die on me, you bastard.”

After another round of CPR, Jim still wasn’t breathing. Leonard was quickly losing hope.

Then he heard, above the baby’s crying, running footfalls approaching. He quietly prayed it wasn’t the enemy.

The steps skidded to a stop and Leonard heard a shocked intake of breath. He glanced over his shoulder, while continuing CPR, and was relieved to see Spock.

“Thank God. Spock, in my med pack, there’s a thing that looks like and epipen but is labelled ‘Adrenaline’. Get it, now.” Dr. McCoy ordered.

Spock quickly rushed over and Leonard could feel him rooting around in the med pack attached to his belt. Leonard did breaths again and checked for breathing. There was still nothing.

Leonard looked up and took the cylindrical device from Spock. He took off the cap with his teeth, found the correct gap between Jim’s ribs, and then slammed the device against Jim’s chest. That action activated the device and injected the adrenaline inside directly into Jim’s heart.


	3. Chapter 3

An agonizing moment, where nothing happened, passed. Spock stood and backed away from the scene.

Then Jim took a shuddering breath, and Leonard let out the one he had been holding without realizing it. Jim didn't stir beyond that, but at least he was breathing.

"Thank God," Leonard muttered.

He moved then, between Jim's legs, getting back to work. His heart dropped at the sight he was confronted with.

The placenta had not passed yet, and Jim was definitely hemorrhaging.

"Damn it," Leonard said.

"What's wrong?" Spock asked.

Leonard briefly glanced up at the Vulcan. Leonard then moved his hand to palpate Jim's stomach.

"He's hemorrhaging," Leonard said, Jim's stomach weakly contacted, "there we go."

Leonard pressed harder on Jim's stomach, and the placenta slid out with a, quiet, wet, squelch.

Leonard moved then, lifting Jim up slightly so he could get those poor excuse for pants out from under him. Len bundled the placenta in the pants and moved it to the side. Then he turned back to Jim and waited.

After about thirty seconds, the bleeding still had not slowed.

"Damn it! We have to get him back to the ship, now," Leonard said, panic starting to set in, as he looked up at Spock.

Spock nodded and pulled out his communicator.

Leonard quickly turned his attention to the, still crying, infant while Spock contacted Scotty. He dug through his med pack and found some scissors and a lanyard that would have to work. He quickly tied and cut the baby's umbilical cord.

Vaguely, Leonard heard Spock tell Scotty to prepare to beam the four of them up as soon as he got a positive lock on them. He also told Scotty to have medical staff ready to take the captain to medbay.

Spock flipped the communicator closed and stepped closer.

"I will carry Jim," Spock said as Leonard looked up at him, "I'm stronger than you."

Leonard nearly snarked back in protest but held off, just nodding instead. The situation called for haste and Len sure as hell couldn't run very fast carrying another man. He gently picked up the baby, who calmed slightly, as Spock picked up Jim bridal style.

The two then exited the room and started running as fast as they could. Leonard knew that, while they were in this part of the complex, Scotty couldn't transport them. Otherwise, he would have just beamed Jim up to the ship. That meant they had to get all the way back to where they had beamed down.

Leonard followed Spock through the passageways and was honestly impressed at the ease with which Spock carried Jim and ran at the same time. 

Soon, they ran out of the opening Bones had made a break for earlier.

The fighting seemed to have moved away but not ended entirely. Leonard could still hear shouting and the sounds of phasers and the enemy's weapons.

He and Spock kept running and soon Leonard could feel, and hear, as the transporter grabbed a hold of him. He skidded to a stop just as he and the baby materialized into the transporter room. He looked to the side and saw Spock and Jim there too.

"What the-" Leonard heard Scotty say.

Leonard ignored the man and made eye contact with his head nurse, Christine Chapel. She silently nodded and moved to help Spock get Jim situated on the stretcher she and Dr. M'Benga had brought in from medbay.

Then she moved into action, trying to get the stretcher out of the transporter room. M'Benga, who had been frozen in shock, regained himself and helped push the stretcher. Christine began to read off Jim's vitals, which were horrible and quickly getting worse.

The three medical staff raced to medbay with their patients. Spock did not follow.

They arrived at medbay and Christine immediately turned to Leonard.

"Give me the baby, you take care of Jim," she said.

Leonard hesitated for half a second, then handed the child over. He then turned back to Jim and M'Benga. The two men hoisted Jim onto a biobed and immediately got to work trying to get the hemorrhaging to stop.

After a trying ten minutes, they luckily managed to get the bleeding to stop, without having to resort to cutting Jim open. Then came further work to stabilize Jim.

He had lost so much blood that a transfusion was necessary. The Enterprise didn't carry blood, that would take too much space, so a person to person transfusion was needed. After some arguing, Leonard convinced Christine and M'Benga to give Jim his blood. He was a universal donor, after all.

Once they had given Jim just enough blood to get him stabilized, Leonard was about to get up to help clean Jim up, but Christine stopped him.

"Len, M'Benga and I can do the rest. Now, let me take a look at your leg," she said.

Until then, Leonard had completely forgotten about his own injury. The wound suddenly started hurt. He wanted to protest, but he knew Christine would stop him. So, he let her deal with his wound.

Leonard watched, from his own biobed, as M'Benga and other nurse started cleaning Jim up. He could feel as Christine set the dermal regenerator over his wound and turn it on. He looked away from Jim and stared instead at the ceiling. 

Leonard hated not being in control of the situation sometimes and so he couldn't stand to watch the others take care of Jim.

Eventually he spoke to Christine, "How's the baby?"

"He's fine, Len. A little small, but otherwise, healthy," Christine responded as she turned the dermal regenerator off and took it off Leonard's leg, "there, good as new."

Leonard tried sitting up on his own, but was a little woozy from giving blood. Christine helped him sit up all the way and swing his legs over the side of the bed.

When he didn't feel like the room was spinning anymore, Leonard took a look at his leg. The wound was gone and what was left behind was a patch of new, hairless skin.

"Thanks, Chris," he said, looking back up at her.  
"Of course," Christine said, smiling, "now, when you are ready, go clean yourself up and get some rest. No arguing."

Leonard nearly did argue, he didn't want to leave Jim, but he knew Chris was telling him to do what was best.

After a moment, he hopped off the biobed. With a last, lingering glance at Jim, Leonard left medbay and slowly made his way to his quarters.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter this time, sorry! I'm too lazy to type out what would have originally gone with this chapter. Sorry about the spelling mistakes in the previous chapter, I think I fixed all of them. I typed that chapter on my phone and the word processor doesn't check spelling. Please, don't be afraid to yell at me about spelling or grammar!

Leonard eventually made it to his quarters. He had to walk slowly because the transfusion had made him a bit light headed.

Once he got there, Leonard want straight to the bathroom. He stripped out of his clothes and got into the shower. Quickly, and meticulously, Leonard scrubbed and cleaned himself, focusing mostly on his hands an arms which had the most blood and bodily fluids on them.

When he was satisfied that he was clean, Leonard allowed himself to relax under the hot water; sharing quarters with the captain definitely had its perks.

Leonard stood there, thinking. He thought about how it was even possible that Jim had managed to conceive and carry a child, but he brushed that thought away. While it was still uncommon, it wasn't unheard of for human men to carry and birth children especially in the last century. 

Leonard strayed away from that topic. There was no way Jim had conceived after he was captured, Leonard thought. He had been gone six months, which was in no way long enough to have birthed an infant as developed as the one he had. Jim had to have been pregnant before he was captured, and, by Leonard's calculations, he had to have been so for, at most, three months.

Yes, Jim had to have been pregnant that long prior. The child was definitely full term.

Leonard wondered why Jim hadn't told him, if he had known. No, Jim had to have known. Jim wasn't a complete idiot, he would've known something was up with him. Given he hadn't told Bones anything, Jim couldn't've thought it was any sort of medical problem.

Leonard felt a little hurt that Jim hadn't told him anything about this.

Unless Jim had cheated on him with another crew member, Leonard knew the kid was his. He and Jim had been together for a couple years when Jim was captured, and Jim was surprisingly very loyal, so Leonard was sure of this.

He then wondered how he himself had not noticed that Jim was pregnant. He was a doctor for Christ’s sake. Sure, Jim had been avoiding his physical, but Jim always did that. Leonard didn’t recall noticing Jim exhibiting any symptoms of pregnancy. Then again, both men had been rather busy during that time, and Leonard remembered spending more that one night in medbay.

Leonard sighed and turned the water off, it didn’t matter now that he hadn’t noticed Jim’s pregnancy before. What did matter what that he had Jim back, alive, and that they now had a newborn son.

Fuck, he was a father ( ~~again~~ ).

Leonard ruffled his wet hair and got out of the shower. He dried himself off and wandered back into the main room of his and Jim’s quarters.

He stood there for a while, staring at the bed and considering whether or not to sleep. He really, _really_ didn’t want to. He wanted to be with Jim and the baby, but Chris had told him to rest, and he didn’t want to piss her off. That woman had quite the temper.

So, Leonard dressed himself, but before he crawled into bed, he went over to the room’s desk and pressed the comm button.

“McCoy to medbay,” he said into the speaker, “please alert me immediately if the condition of either new patient changes.”

Then Leonard crawled into bed.

He told the computer to shut the lights off, and it did.

It wasn’t long before he was asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Leonard woke up suddenly, in a cold sweat. His heart was racing and he had the vague memory of some horrible nightmare.

It took him a moment to calm down from whatever he had dreamed about. Then he sighed and rubbed his face.

Leonard knew he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. He never could after a nightmare. It was his curse as a doctor; he had become incapable of going back to sleep once roused.

“Computer,” he said to the dark, empty room, “lights, fifty percent.”

The computer chimed and the lights gradually turned on. 

Leonard hauled himself out of bed and found the time. For his shift, it was very early, but it wasn’t like he wasn’t up at all times anyway. Oh the joys of being Chief Medical Officer. 

He freshened up in the bathroom and dressed himself. Then Leonard made his way down to medbay.

When he arrived, Leonard was greeted by the two nurses on shift. The lead nurse stepped forward.

“Good morning, Dr. McCoy,” he said.

“Mornin’, Nurse Sorel,” Leonard responded.

“Both patients are doing well. The captain’s condition has improved slightly, and the baby is doing well. Nurse Chapel managed to find some formula mix for him,” the nurse said.

“Thanks for the updates, but I’m not really here as Dr. McCoy right now.”

Nurse Sorel smiled at him.

“Of course,” he said and left Leonard alone.

Len sighed slightly, watching the nurse leave, then went over to Jim’s biobed. Out of habit, he checked Jim’s vitals, which did look better. Gently, Leonard brushed some hair off of Jim’s forehead.

It was a bit strange to have Jim back after so long. It was especially strange to have him back in an unconscious state. Leonard would never admit it out loud, but he found the captain’s nigh constant blabbering endearing.

Leonard stood there for a little while, just looking at Jim. He honestly looked like crap, Leonard thought. Jim’s skin was pale and blotchy, and he was notably thin, but he was alive. That was all that mattered to Leonard; everything else was cosmetic.

A soft noise drew Leonard’s attention. He turned around and looked at the biobed next to Jim’s. It had been outfitted to work as a bassinet. Looking inside, Leonard saw the baby, who was swaddled up in a soft looking blanket. He was squirming and grunting quietly.

He stood, transfixed, for a moment then, Leonard reached down and gently picked the baby up. The little one squirmed harder for a moment, obviously protesting the disruption, but then he quieted down. He seemed to find comfort in Leonard.

“Hey there, little one,” Len said softly to the infant, “it’s nice to be able to hold you now that everything’s calm. I’m your papa. You already know your other dad, though he hasn’t held ya’ yet. I wonder what your daddy wants to call you, hmm? It’s a shame he hasn’t been able to see you yet; I know he will be so excited when he can. He was in rough shape after you were born. Hand it to a Kirk to have a dramatic entrance into the world. Like father, like son I guess.”

Leonard chuckled quietly to himself. He gently stroked the baby’s soft cheek with his finger.

It had been quite some time since he had held a baby, and even longer since he had held one of his own. It felt nice.

Leonard hadn’t even seen his other kid, Joanna, in a few years; not since they had started this second five year mission. He imagined that she was probably growing into quite the young woman, though he could only picture her as the feisty ten-year-old she had been when Leonard had last seen her.

Jo had been about five when Jocelyn, her mother, threw in the towel and decided she was sick and tired of trying to deal with Leonard’s shit. The divorce had been rough and for a while, Leonard had absolutely no contact with his daughter.

When Jim had found out about Joanna, while the two men were in academy together, he had gotten pissed off and all but dragged Leonard’s ass back to Georgia. Jim had hunted down Jocelyn, her new husband, and Joanna, through means Leonard didn’t even want to begin to imagine, and made Jocelyn let Leonard see Jo. There was yelling, and threats at the time, and Leonard wanted to rip Jim’s head off, but it all worked out well in the end.

Jocelyn eventually relented and agreed to let Joanna have contact with Leonard, and he would be allowed to visit her when he was on shore leave.

Len missed Jo something fierce, even if he did occasionally vid chat with her. He knew she would be excited at the prospect of another sibling.

Leonard sighed and sat down on a chair, that had been pulled up near Jim’s bed.

He stayed in medbay for most of the day, only leaving after Christine threatened to tranquillize him and drag him back to his quarters, and only staying away for a short amount of time.

Leonard hadn’t realized it, but the fighting down on the planet had continued through his time on the ship. It’s end was marked by an influx of patients into medbay.

Leonard, much to Christine’s disapproval, worked to help those who had been injured. Soon, medbay had filled up with injured crew members.

Those with only mostly minor cuts and scrapes were turned away so that there would be space for those who needed serious medical attention. There were broken bones and deep wounds as well as one who had fallen down into a deep pit after being shot in the stomach. Additionally, there were three outright casualties which were sent straight to the ship’s morgue.

Leonard had to focus his attention on the most injured patient. She required serious surgery for her internal injuries and was likely to have a slow recovery.

Christine, M’Benga, as well as the other nurses and orderlies aboard the ship, who had been called into medbay, worked to help the other patients. One orderly, a Betazoid, was tasked with keeping an eye on the baby.

It took several hours to deal with the injuries of all of the patients. When the last crew member who could be discharged was, Leonard turned to Christine.

“Nurse Chapel,” he said, “will you assist me in assessing the casualties?”

Christine gave him a disapproving frown.

“No, but I will help Dr. M’Benga with that,” she said firmly.

Leonard sighed heavily and frowned at her.

“Chris-” he started.

“Nuh-uh,” she interrupted,”You go be with Jim and the baby. M’Benga and I can more than handle whatever else that needs to be done right now.”

Leonard narrowed his eyes at her in irritation.

“Fine,” he grumbled, relenting.

Christine smiled triumphantly and turned to follow Dr. M’Benga to the morgue. Leonard rolled his eyes at her. Secretly, he was glad she had forced him to stop working, but he would never admit that out loud. Leonard sighed and made his way back over to Jim and the baby.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! Sorry about the wait, I don't have a legitimate excuse. This may or may not be the last chapter, I haven't decided yet. Enjoy! ;)

It was late into what was Leonard’s evening. He had stayed in medbay for most of the day, only leaving when Christine forced him to eat. He was sat down, at his desk, working on his report for the day.

Leonard knew he should take time off, but the workaholic in him wouldn’t allow it. Besides, it wasn’t like there was much he could do outside of working besides stare at the still very unconscious Jim Kirk, even if the kid was pretty. So, Leonard worked.

A noise, which his brain really didn’t process, drew Len’s attention, simultaneously causing his heart to jump into his throat. He looked up in the direction of the noise. It seemed to have come from over by Jim’s bed. Leonard frowned in confusion and observed what he could of Jim’s vitals from his desk. They didn’t seem to be any different, so the noise couldn’t have been any sort of alarm, and Jim’s vitals gave no indication of wakefulness.

Then he heard the noise again, his brain actually processing it this time. It was the small, distinctive sound that a baby makes right before it’s about to start fussing. Ah, that was why Len’s heart had jumped.

The doctor sighed and pushed himself up out of his chair. As he made his way over to the biobed the baby was in, it started to actually cry.

“Alright, alright. I’m commin’,” Leonard said, walking faster.

“C’m’ere, little one,” he said, picking the baby up, “it’s alright, I’ve got you.”

The baby quickly calmed down. He stared up at Leonard with big blue eyes, that were likely to change as he aged. Leonard smiled down at him.

“Hi there. You just didn’t want to be alone, huh?” Leonard asked softly.

The baby smiled and cooed softly at Leonard.

“Bones?” Leonard heard a raspy version of Jim’s voice ask from behind him.

Leonard turned around and locked eyes with a tired and confused looking Jim. They held each other’s gaze for a moment before Jim’s eyes dropped down to the bundle in Leonard’s arms. The look of confusion on Jim’s face deepened.

“Jim,” Leonard said softly, having regained himself, “do you remember what happened?”

Jim looked back up at Leonard and licked his lips. He then looked back down at the bundle in Leonard’s arms and swallowed. Weakly, Jim’s pushed himself up a little from the bed and held his arms out in Leonard’s direction.

Len smiled softly and carefully handed the baby over to Jim, making sure he had a good hold. Then he knelt down next to the biobed.

Jim stared down at the tiny baby in his arms in awe. The baby stared right back.

“I-is...”Jim rasped, then swallowed, but didn’t continue.

Leonard knew what Jim was wondering and so answered him, “He’s yours, Jim.”

“Wow,” Jim breathed. 

He ran his finger down his son’s cheek.

“Hi there, I’m your dad, well, one of ‘em. You’ve already met the other one. I know he’s taken good care of you, it’s kinda his job, I just he wasn’t too grumpy with you.”

Leonard’s breath caught in his throat at Jim’s words. He had known the baby was his (or at least rejected any idea that is wasn’t), but hearing Jim’s definite confirmation was a whole other thing. He looked at Jim, but couldn’t meet his eye as Jim was staring at the baby.

Leonard let the moment of silence that followed Jim’s words to last a little while he collected his thoughts.

“Jim,” he finally said. Jim looked at him.

“Why didn’t you tell me beforehand? You had to ‘ve known.”

Jim looked guilty and sighed, his shoulders slouching. He looked away from Leonard.

“I was scared,” Jim admitted, “scared you’d be mad. Scared you wouldn’t want it.... scared you’d leave me.”

The last part was said very quietly. Leonard sighed.

“Jim, I wouldn’t’ve left you. I’m not that kinda man. Besides, I love you more than anything in the world,” Leonard said.

He reached out and gently rubbed Jim’s arm. He wanted to hold Jim’s hand, but that wasn’t possible while Jim held their son. Jim let out a shuddering breath and looked back at Leonard with glistening eyes.

“’M sorry Bones. I should’a told you,” Jim’s words were thick with emotion, “maybe if I had you’d’ve stopped me going on that stupid away mission and I wouldn’t’ve gotten myself captured and nearly killed.”

Jim sniffed, barely containing the tears that Leonard knew were eminent.

“You would’ve still gone on that mission, Jim. We both know that. That doesn’t matter now, though. What’s passed is passed. All that matters now is that you are safe. Both of you,” Leonard said. He wanted to berate Jim on his stupidity, but Jim didn’t deserve that right now and Len knew he couldn’t handle it.

The two men fell into silence for a few minutes. The baby fell asleep.

Jim was first to break the silence.

“I was so scared in there, Bones,” he started, quietly, “I thought you’d never find me. I thought I was going to die alone and bring the baby with me. Then I went into labour and I. I was convinced I was going to die, only I wasn’t so sure the baby would die with me. I didn’t want to leave him to face those monsters.”

Jim had started crying part way through that. Leonard could see the tears running down the side of Jim’s face and hear the sadness in his voice.

“Jim, look at me,” Jim did so, Leonard placed a hand on his cheek and wiped away some of the tears, “Those were completely reasonable fears to have at the time. Hell, I was scared we wouldn’t find you, or, if we did, all that’d be left was pieces. But, we did find you and you weren’t dead. Though you got mighty close to it.”

Jim closed his eyes and leaned into Len’s touch, a few more tears slipping down his face.

“I love you Jim, so much,” Len said in almost a whisper,”more ‘n I’ve loved anyone in my whole life and I am so glad that you are alright.”

Leonard meant every word of what he said, and it honestly scared him. He had been a fool when he was with Jocelyn, and now he was faced with a terrifying new reality.

Jim opened his eyes and chuckled, drawing Leonard from his thoughts.

“I love you too, Bones,” Jim said.

Then, they kissed.

Afterwards the two stared silently at their son for a while.

The silence and the moment were ended when the baby started fussing again. Jim seemed a little distressed by this. He sent a pleading glance in Leonard’s direction.

Leonard chuckled softly.

“It’s alright, Jim, he’s just hungry.”

Jim paled and looked back down at the baby who was chuffing in frustration as he rooted against Jim’s chest.

Leonard was already starting to stand when Jim spoke.

“Bones, I-I don’t... I can’t...”

“It’s ok Jim, I know. I’ll make him a bottle.”

Jim relaxed slightly and gave Leonard a grateful smile as he left.

Leonard returned as quickly as he could with a bottle of formula from the medbay replicator. He handed it to Jim, who immediately began feeding the baby.

Once the baby had settled down and set to eating, Jim relaxed again.

“He’s so small,” Jim said after a short silence.

“ _He_ ,” Leonard responded shortly, “needs a name.”

Jim fell silent again.

“I want to name him Christopher,” Jim said so quietly that Leonard barely heard him.

“After Pike?” Len asked, genuinely surprised.

“Yeah, after Pike. My real dad’s already got someone named after him and Pike never had any kids.”

While there was some humor in Jim’s tone, Len could tell it was forced and over shadowed by many other feeling brought about by Jim talking not only about his own father but also the late admiral.

Leonard knew Jim considered Pike a father to him. He also knew Jim wasn’t usually the sentimental type, not truly. So, Len knew he was being deadly serious.

Len gently kissed the top of Jim’s head.

“Christopher it is then. Pike would be honored and so proud of you Jim.”

Leonard reached forward and gently petted Christopher’s head.

“Christopher Kirk-McCoy,” Jim said with a correcting tone.

Leonard chuckled softly.

“Christopher Kirk-McCoy,” he agreed.


End file.
